QMJHL breaks the ice on 2015-16 season
(Photo: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images)
Wednesday September 9, 2015
By Josh Sweetland/CHL
As is typically the custom, the QMJHL will be the first of the Canadian Hockey League’s three branches to drop the puck on the 2015-16 season, embarking on its 47th campaign Thursday night when the Shawinigan Cataractes visit the reigning President Cup Champion Rimouski Oceanic.
Several early season storylines dot the QMJHL landscape with the most prominent coming out of Saint John where 15 year-old rookie Joe Veleno, who becomes the first QMJHL player to be granted exceptional status by Hockey Canada, is gearing up for his first season with the Sea Dogs.
Like John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid before him, Veleno made a big impact as a 14 year-old, scoring 14 goals and adding 36 assists for 52 points in 41 games with the Lac St-Louis Lions Midgets.
The first 2000-born player to breach the Canadian Hockey League ranks, Veleno is doing his best to focus on the task in front of him.
“(My focus) is just play like myself and don’t be compared to Connor McDavid or John Tavares, just be compared to myself,” Veleno told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
Sea Dogs head coach Danny Flynn says Veleno has come into camp with a “kind of quiet, confident, unassuming, go-about-his-job type of personality” and proceeded to net two goals, two assists and four points in as many preseason contests.
While Veleno is the big ticket attraction in Saint John early on this season, the Sea Dogs, who had seven different players selected in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, will be an intriguing team to watch in the months to come. With a large returning class that includes 2014-15 leading scorer Nathan Noel, Carolina Hurricanes draftee Spencer Smallman and powerplay quarterback Thomas Chabot, Saint John will likely face their share of resistance from the Charlottetown Islanders in the Maritimes Division.
Charlottetown sees leading scorers in Ottawa Senators draftee Filip Chlapik and Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Daniel Sprong return to the lineup while goaltender Mason McDonald is among the frontrunners to earn a job with the Canadian National Junior Team in December. The Islanders look to build off a 35-win season in 2014-15.
QMJHL leading scorer Conor Garland and the Moncton Wildcats will battle Detroit Red Wings first rounder Evgeny Svechnikov and the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles to be in the Maritimes Division mix while the rebuilding Halifax Mooseheads, who may get Swiss standout Timo Meier back from the San Jose Sharks, will try and keep pace as well.
The QMJHL’s East Division features the defending champion Rimouski Oceanic, who claimed their title over the Quebec Remparts in a thrilling game seven double overtime victory, bringing back a few key contributors in Michael Joly, Tyler Boland and Simon Bourque. With the graduation of longtime captain Alexis Loiseau, dangerous shooter Christopher Clapperton, hulking centreman Frederik Gauthier, offensive blueliner Jan Kostalek and CHL Goaltender of the Year Philippe Desrosiers though, the ‘Nics will have their hands full in defending their crown.
With recently drafted standout forwards Anthony Beauvillier (NY Islanders) and Dennis Yan (Tampa Bay) returning, the 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup Champion Shawinigan Cataractes are back in the discussion as being one of the QMJHL’s best. Coming off 39 wins last season, Shawinigan has added big Russian winger Alexander Dergachev through the CHL Import Draft while 19 year-old flank Alexis D’Aoust, who put up 57 points (24-33–57) last season, led the QMJHL in preseason scoring with eight goals, three assists and 11 points in six games.
The Cataractes see 18 year-old Antoine Samuel take over the starting job in goal from graduate Marvin Cupper while overage rearguards Zachary Taylor and Alexandre Coulombe help stabilize a blueline that also includes draft eligibles in 2014 first round picks Gabriel Sylvestre and Samuel Girard.
While the Cataractes appear poised to challenge for a division title, the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup host Quebec Remparts will aim to make things interesting as well. Returning sniper Dmytro Timashov will be back in the lineup after being selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2015 NHL Draft. With the graduation of mainstays Kurt Etchegary, Vladimir Tkachev, Adam Erne, Anthony Duclair, Jerome Verrier and Marc-Olivier Roy up front, the Remparts will need 19 year-olds Massimo Carozza, Zachery Moody, Yannick Turcotte and 18 year-old CHL Import Draft selection Auguste Impose to pick up the slack.
Carolina Hurricanes prospect Callum Booth will carry the load in goal for Quebec after the graduation of Zachary Fucale. He’ll backstop a defence corps that includes returnees Nikolas Brouillard, Raphael Maheux, Matt Murphy and Ross MacDougall.
The Chicoutimi Sagueneens will ice a young squad led by overage forward Gabryel Paquin-Boudreau who was limited to seven games in an injury shortened season last year. He’ll have help from Carolina Hurricanes fourth rounder Nicolas Roy and 19 year-old netminder Julio Billia who will serve as the last line of defence behind an inexperienced group of defencemen.
The Baie-Comeau Drakkar will have to adjust to life after Philippe Cadorette in the crease. Edmonton Oilers prospect Keven Bouchard takes over for Cadorette, who set the QMJHL shutouts record with the 16th of his career last season. With Cadorette graduating to the ECHL, Bouchard will backstop a Drakkar team that has lost its top four scorers from last season in Maxime St-Cyr, Luca Ciampini and Frederic Gamelin while Montreal Canadiens prospect Jeremy Gregoire makes the jump to the AHL.
The QMJHL West Division will be up for grabs, with a few teams showing the early season makings of a contender.
The Val-d’Or Foreurs enter the season with a core of slippery offensive weapons. Nashville Predators selection Anthony Richard returns for a fourth campaign after putting up 91 points (43-48–91) last year. He’s accompanied by Philadelphia second rounder Nicolas Aube-Kubel and 18 year-old Julien Gauthier, who each buried 38 goals in 2014-15, along with overage centreman Anthony Beauregard and big power winger Alexis Pepin.
Overager Vytal Cote will lead the blueline alongside 18 year-old Olivier Galipeau in front of returning goaltender Etienne Montpetit.
The Sherbrooke Phoenix return an established blueline that features San Jose Sharks prospects Jeremy Roy and the 6’5″, 227Ib. Alexis Vanier. Vancouver Canucks draftee Carl Neill will also help bolster the defence in front of 17 year-old former fourth overall QMJHL draft pick Evan Fitzpatrick and 18 year-old Alexandre Lagace in goal.
A fleet-footed crew of undersized forwards led by overager Daniel Audette and Swiss playmaker Kay Schweri will give opposing defences fits as the Phoenix try and build off a 36-win campaign and rise to West Division supremacy.
Despite the return of promising young goaltender Samuel Montembeault. the reigning West Division Champion Blainville-Boisbriand Armada have suffered the graduation of both Danick Martel and Nikita Jevpalovs along with point man Daniel Walcott, with the three accounting for nearly 250 points last season.
The Armada will compete with the goal of obtaining home ice advantage in the playoffs along with divisional opponents in the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, who led the QMJHL preseason with a 6-1 record, and the Gatineau Olympiques who feature returning standouts Yakov Trenin, Yan Pavel Laplante and Alexandre Carrier.
The QMJHL will be the first league to unveil CHL-wide rule changes for the 2015-16 season when the puck drops on Thursday. The OHL and WHL will follow suit when their seasons get underway on September 24th. The directives are headlined by the implementation of a 3-on-3 overtime period that will proceed the pre-existing shootout.
New rules, new players and a new quest to capture the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup in Red Deer, Alberta next May mark the start of another CHL hockey season.